Faculty - Translational Metabolic Engineering & Neurotherapeutics

Position: Open Rank Faculty - Translational Metabolic Engineering & Neurotherapeutics
Position Information

Classification Title Open Rank FLSA Faculty Rank Open Rank Contract Type Academic (9 mo.) Tenure Status Tenure Track or Tenured

Minimum Qualifications

A Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering, Biological Engineering, Biomedical Engineering, Neuro-engineering or a closely related field.

Position Summary

The University of Georgia invites applications for a 9-month, open-rank tenure-track faculty position at the Assistant or Associate Professor rank in the interdisciplinary area of Translational Metabolic Engineering and Neurotherapeutics, as part of the  Presidential Strategic Faculty Hiring Initiative (PHI). This position represents a collaborative recruitment effort between the School of Chemical, Materials, and Biomedical Engineering (CMBE) in the College of Engineering and the Isakson Center for Neurological Disease Research (ICNDR) in the College of Veterinary Medicine.

The successful candidate will be expected to accelerate the development of metabolite-producing cell systems and advance preclinical testing for neurodegenerative diseases (e.g. Parkinson's and Alzheimer's), and, specifically:

* Establish an outstanding, internationally recognized research program in metabolic engineering or synthetic biology.

* Foster and establish collaborations between the School of Chemical, Materials, and Biomedical Engineering (CMBE) and the Isakson Center for Neurological Disease Research (ICNDR).

* Exhibit a strong commitment to teaching excellence at both the undergraduate and graduate levels, specifically in biochemical and biomedical engineering.

* Compete successfully for extramural funding (NIH, NSF) to support research and a companion graduate and postdoctoral training program.

Faculty hired as part of this initiative will join a rapidly growing College of Engineering that combines interdisciplinary research and scholarship with excellent instruction and service. The UGA College of Engineering currently enrolls over 3,000 engineering majors and has 121 full-time engineering faculty across 15 degree programs. The college also jointly administers the School of Computing in collaboration with the UGA Franklin College of Arts and Sciences, an academic unit that comprises over 1800 computer science majors and 45 full-time faculty.

The College of Engineering is comprised for four interdisciplinary schools: the School of Chemical, Materials, and Biomedical Engineering;
School of Electrical and Computer Engineering;
School of Environmental, Civil, Agricultural, and Mechanical Engineering; and School of Computing.

Significant investments in infrastructure have resulted in an expansion of laboratory facilities for research and scholarship and new classrooms and instructional labs. College of Engineering faculty have space in two major capital projects on campus to create interdisciplinary research facilities. Our main instructional facility, Driftmier Engineering Center, has also undergone a complete renovation to create flexible classrooms that enable a range of teaching modalities and the incorporation of interdisciplinary instructional labs.

The common instructional facilities also foster collaboration by allowing faculty, staff, and students to interact and collaborate in a single facility.

Additional Requirements

Candidates must have a documented research background appropriate for the appointment rank, as evidenced by peer-reviewed publications, extramural funding, and mentorship of doctoral students.

Candidates considered for the associate professor rank must have qualifications and academic credentials commensurate with the promotion and tenure guidelines at the University of Georgia. For information about the requirements for each faculty rank, please see the UGA Guidelines for Appointment, Promotion and Tenure.

To be eligible for tenure upon appointment, candidates must be appointed as an associate professor, have been tenured at a prior institution, and bring a demonstrable national reputation to the institution. Candidates must be approved for tenure upon appointment before hire.

Relevant/Preferred Education, Experience, Licensure, and/or Certification Preferred Knowledge, Skills, Abilities and/or Competencies

We seek candidates whose work bridges metabolic engineering, synthetic biology, neuro-engineering, and translational neuroscience to advance therapeutic strategies for neurodegenerative diseases, including Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease, and related disorders.

Areas of interest include (but are not limited to):

* Metabolic engineering for therapeutic discovery, including engineering of metabolic pathways relevant to neural health and disease.

* Synthetic biology approaches to engineer microbial, mammalian, or hybrid biological systems for therapeutic metabolite production or modulation of neural pathways.

* Microbiome-brain axis engineering, including microbial or metabolite-based interventions for neuroprotection or disease modification.

* Computational and quantitative modeling of metabolic…